Baby time...running time...watch time

So it's been a while since I last posted anything. This won't be news for most but I'm gong to pretend that there are more than 3 people who look at this blog and that some of them don't really know me and give the news anyway: I have a baby boy now!
Ok, so that's not news to most, but here's were it gets good. The day of birth I decided to keep a little log of the events and their times. This is not something that most people have seen so consider yourself lucky.

7:00am - Labor starts. Someone else woke me up saying, "We're definitely having this baby today."
7:45 - Water breaks. The contractions were becoming more intense.
9:25 - Leave for Mt. Auburn after 90 minutes in a low level panic!
9:50 - Arrive at Mt. Auburn Hospital. A tip for anyone who has to drive to a hospital; try to do it on a Sunday, there was no traffic!

Our home-birth mid-wife was waiting for us with a big smile on her face and a chair with wheels. (Lets not limit the chair to it's usual title of Wheel Chair...it can be so much more than that!)
I could (and should) write a whole post on our home-birth mid-wife. She is great. Her calming presence and slow walk up to Labor and Delivery is what made me want to keep a log of the days events.

10:05 - A nurse started taking stats on the baby.
10:10 - Hospital mid-wife comes in. Now this is where it got great. The hospital mid-wife was friends with our home-birth mid-wife! Not only where they friends, but they both shared the same first name! Not only did they both share the same first name, but they both had long salt and pepper hair and had a earthy tone to them! We were so blessed to have so many great people caring for us!
10:14 - The baby pooped a bit! I will not discuss how I know that on a blog.
10:16 - An exam confirmed the baby's butt crack was going to be the first thing to come out!
10:30 - The doctor who will attend the birth comes in and introduces herself. I don't remember her name. She played a very minimal but important role. There were only a handful of doctors at the hospital that would agree to deliver a breech birth and she was one of them. Yay for open minded doctors!
10:35 - Someone else gets into a tub and is able to relax a bit.
10:45 - The anesthesiologist comes in to talk a little about a cesarean birth. You can tell you're getting old when you look at doctors and assume they must be too young to have graduated med school and this must be some trick or experiment or something. She told us several times that she hopes to not have to see us again...and she got her wish!

At this point her contractions were about 45 seconds long with a 90 second break between each one.

10:50 - They stick someone else with a IV just in case she'll need one later. They also take some blood.
11:03 - "Oh no, you need to keep that on or you won't be allowed in here." That's what one of the nurses actually said to me when I requested another ID wrist band to put on my other wrist. This is rediculous for a couple reasons:

We had been in L&D every day for the past week and nobody ever questioned me even though I was clearly NOT wearing a wrist band. So much for the crack team of security guards they have guarding the place.
All I wanted to do was switch wrists, not escape the aforementioned security of the hospital.
Really, you're gong to tell an expecting dad that he has to leave his wife while she gives birth because he's not wearing a wrist band...really?!

11:45 - I sent a text to a certain JJM to inform him on the events at hand. I was risking getting some frowned eyebrows for talking so early, but I was later not scolded for letting the secret out.

At this point her contractions are about 55 seconds long with about 70 seconds break between each.

12:15 - A nurse comes in to confirm that someone else's vitals, as well as the babies, are all perfect! This is good news to hear at this point because the contractions are getting stronger and it's hard for her (someone else) not to push.

Doing a vaginal delivery of a breech baby is more complicated than a "standard" birth. The mother must resist the urge to push until she is beyond 10cm dilated. This is difficult and painful to do. Someone else was doing so well this entire time. In the tub she was able to resist the urge to push.

12:40 - The staff and our home-birth mid-wife agree it's time to move someone else to a bed and prepare for delivery. This scares her because outside of the water the urge to push will be too strong to stop. Luckily that is ok. Pushing will be allowed as we move into the birth hour!

She is allowed to labor on her side for a while, but her birth position must be on her back. This, like a lot of other things, was not in the plan.

1:30 - Part of the bed that will be where she gives birth is taken apart to allow for a better angle for the delivery.She is moved into a position on her back and is told to start pushing harder and push all the time regardless of a contraction.
1:35 - Someone asks her how she's doing and she responds with a quiet "fine." She then asks a young mid-wife who is attending to see her first breech "How are you doing?" The room is silent and the mid-wife is not sure she's talking to her. Someone else explains that she was just wondering because this is her first breech birth. Everyone laughs a bit at the fact that during this painful process, someone else actually cares enough to ask someone else how they're doing! What a gal!
1:45 - The butt comes out! And let me ask you this, if you only existed as a butt, what would you do? That's right, you poop! And poop he did! (oh, at this point I had confirmation that it was a boy, but someone else was still out of the loop).
1:54 - Xavier August Perrino is born! He is brought right up to mommies chest and greeted with a lot of encouraging words. He was a little in shock because of the nature of the delivery so they took him to a warming table to make sure he was up and running...although I think they took him to the table just because it's their routine. They soon brought him back to mommy where he squiggled and squirmed for a bit.

Things get a little confusing at this point. Lots of people mulling around. I failed to write anything down.
The doctor, who seemed pretty detached from most of the process, had a tear in her eye and a quivering lip when she said good-bye. We are so thankful for her skills and presence. I hope this was more than just a routine birth for her.

2:42 - Xavier feeds for the first time.

There a lot of visits (from hospital staff) all afternoon. Xavier never left our sight. The whole staff was great at getting us things we needed and doing their jobs to the best of their ability...except for when we intervened!